Families ‘are £42 a week worse off under Coalition’

Families in London have lost £42.30 a week on average since the Coalition came to office, Labour claimed today.

They are £2,200 worse off on average after falling real wages and higher costs of living are taken into account.

Shadow Treasury minister Chris Leslie said the average family in Britain would have lost £6,660 over the Coalition austerity drive. He said his analysis, based on official statistics, meant David Cameron had presided over the biggest squeeze ever on household incomes.

“It is a significant, serious amount of money,” he said. “That’s enough to pay for the average family weekly shop for almost a year and a half.”

But Government whip Mark Hunter blamed Labour for “crashing the economy”.

The Liberal Democrat MP said: “The reason the cost of living is high is because Labour crashed the economy. For them to criticise the coalition for cleaning up their mess is utterly hypocritical.”

He went on: “Liberal Democrats have done everything we can to help people with the cost of living while cleaning up Labour’s mess. We have given 24 million ordinary workers a £700 tax cut, increased the state pension by £650 and kept mortgage payments and interest rates low.”